ABSTRACT
One of the most interesting remarks reported to have been made by T. S. Eliot about The Cocktail Party is that it constitutes his rejoinder to Jean-Paul Sartre's biting judgement that hell is other people. The Cocktail Party is a vivid portrayal of "narcissistic object relating". The characters are struggling to escape, to find a way to take hold of the handle of the door that can lead them out of that prison, that claustrophobic world, in which others are "merely projections". Throughout the play, this is the central dynamic as the characters begin to learn how to be honest with each other, and thus with themselves, to learn the meaning of sincerity. Eliot's reading would be a profoundly interesting interpretation of Sartre's existentialist despair. Celia imagines the ecstasy and intimacy of love as a dream in which one is exalted by the intensity of love, "in the spirit" Eliot adds.
